Big Green Teams
Basketball and Hockey Teams, Picked By Experts To Lose Their League Titles, Make Upsetting Starts
THERE HAS BEEN no time in recent years when Dartmouth sports fans didn't thank their lucky stars that the Big Green coaching family, man for man and total for total, wasn't as good as any in this country; but recently athletic followers have considered this happy situation of clever tutoring for Indian competitors even more profoundly than formerly, for this college year has already proven how much of an asset each of Dartmouth's coaches can be, and will continue to be, through the remainder of this season and in other seasons to come.
Harking back for a moment to football, it is easy to believe how completely disastrous the campaign might have been with a lesser staff of coaches than Earl Blaik and his assistants, and although this has been said before, it will always stand repetition.
Now as Dartmouth heads into the serious schedule of the winter sports season, it again becomes evident that coaching skill of a superior type will be needed to keep the Green in the running for championship honors, and, we add quickly, it will take fine handling to make Dartmouth a serious threat in the different league races, despite the fact that in both basketball and hockey Dartmouth is the defending titleholder.
Taking first the situation on the court: The outlook, as Coach Cowles told you last month, was none too bright at the beginning. With four veterans departed, a new team was in the process of being made —never an overnight miracle in college athletics of any sort. To add worries to the lineup possibilities, the Green recently lost the services of veteran Vin Else, left forward and an extremely valuable member of the court aggregation.
It was necessary only to watch the quintet in practice and in early season games to realize that an uphill fight was the best that could be expected. The Christmas vacation trip also proved beyond a doubt that in so far as material is concerned, Gus Broberg alone rates with the greats of the game on the basis of national talent. Stanford, beaten by Dartmouth a year ago, was much too strong for the Green newcomers, and when the game was over, Dartmouth was a poor second, 55-29. At Rochester, before a large alumni gathering, the Indians felt more at home and lost only after a close struggle, 37-35. At White Plains after a four-minute warmup, which is not included as an excuse for defeat, the Green made it three straight setbacks, this time by a score of 42-30. Coach Cowles had this to say on returning home from the tour:
"We have gained experience that we need. We know now exactly where our
weaknesses are, and can proceed accordingly. There is nothing to be discouraged about. In time we may improve, and I hope it is in time to make it interesting for the League teams."
Well, to make a long story shorter, the first League foe to visit Hanover found the Green no pushover as the papers had stated Dartmouth would be after the trouncings handed out by Stanford and California. Against the Crimson, the Indians did not look smooth, confident or developed to the point that Cowles will eventually bring them to, but there was enough improvement to be seen, along with the 51-31 score, to send the capacity throng homeward bound with the feeling that it will be easier to oust Dartmouth from the throne on paper, than it will be to oust them from the top in actual combat. Few fail to realize that the team is quite different from the five of a year ago, but the thought is unanimous that Cowles will make a lively evening for any League foe after he has had his crew under his wing for a sufficient period of training.
To drift into the hockey picture we can say as a starter that the material that Eddie Jeremiah started out with was about as rock-bottom as any I have seen in the Davis Rink for the last six years. Because Jerry is an extremely likable fellow as well as a coaching wizard, everybody locally felt sorry for the void left to Jeremiah by the graduation of some pretty fancy operatives including Jim Feeley, Wes Goding, Bud Foster and Harpo Walsh.
While hockey fans were thus meditating, the first thing they noticed in the papers was a 4-3 victory over Boston College in an overtime slam-bang affair at Rye, N. Y. Previously the Indian six had defeated Colby, M.I.T. and Colgate, which was mainly credited to the weaknesses of the opposition rather than to the strength of the Dartmouth six. As a matter of fact, Jerry had admitted that the first two games on the home ice had shown just what the railbirds expected.
However even the win over B. C., a team that has been highly regarded as a top New England sextet and rightfully so, did not thoroughly convince the fans that they should expect much once the Quad League race was under way.
To the general amazement of Hanover people, Dartmouth upset the home town experts by downing the Harvards, 5-4, in an overtime encounter that had the Boston Garden fans completely tired at the end of the fray and the players so exhausted that both sides were wobbly.
When one attempts to analyze the manpower that Jerry has this year, the sum total is far from convincing. In the goal he has been forced to call upon a sophomore, Ted Lapres, who was not particularly brilliant as a freshman. At one defense he has had "Soup" Campbell, a veteran and tested performer. For the other defense post he has used Pidge Hughes, who did not make the varsity squad a winter ago until the tail end of the campaign when he was brought up for encouragement. Pidge was perhaps a gamble on Jerry's part, but he learned rapidly until his work has been of a hardchecking variety.
For forwards Jerry had three veterans for three lines. They were Captain Dan Sullivan, Fred Maloon and Mai Cross. Sullivan has been called by Jerry "the best wing in college hockey." Certainly Sully was a good start. Maloon has been regarded as a "mean man in front of the opposition's net, but his sophomore year had not been exceptional out on the ice. Cross had been a utility man and boasted a terrifically hard shot. To compare the first line with the trio of 1939 would be unfair even at this date. To make up his second and third lines Jerry had at his disposal six sophomores. A perusal of the freshman hockey record of a year ago best explains the outlook for the newcomers. A second wave of Pete Keir (Hanover boy), John Brooks (shifted from defense), and Bill Riley was finally decided upon. With two lines against Harvard's three, the Green went out to do battle and won, an accomplishment that can not be dulled even if the remainder of the season is a complete washout. Jerry has long been accused of doing it with mirrors, and he is going to be hard put to prove otherwise if his team keeps making history as it has done for three years in a row. The end of Dartmouth's long winning streak in Quad competition—13 straight at this writing—is bound to come, but it may be some time before another entry in the League can closely approach it for an all-time record.
Another Green winter sport coach making his debut at the head of Indian athletes, Karl Michael, started his career by watching his natators take a numerical beating from Harvard, 4814 to Nevertheless the meet itself was encouraging to Dartmouth's swimming future. For one thing the results showed improvements made during Karl's short stay at the helm. The Green tied Harvard in the medley relay and set a new College record in so doing. Jim O'Mara, sophomore, improved 21/2 seconds over any other previous time in taking second in the backstroke. Dick Cords, with a third in the same event, bettered the mark by 2 seconds. Dick Potter '42, lone first-place winner for the Green, bettered his previous performances in the breast stroke by 4 seconds in the medley relay and by 4.6 seconds in the 200. Bob Carney, last in the dive, convinced Michael more than ever before that with experience he is going to be a top ranking star.
All in all the results can not be figured purely in points, and looking at the outcome on a long range basis, Dartmouth swimming is not too far away from being on an equal plane with Harvard, Yale and Princeton, the actual Big Three of the E.I.S.L.
On the Dartmouth sports front an item of interest this month was the announcement by the Athletic Council that Frank E. Moore had been signed to fill the end coach vacancy left open by the resignation of Eddie Hirshberg, who for three years was a member of the varsity staff. Eddie's departure will be felt by his wingmen and many friends, for he was a most likeable coach and had become a familiar part of the football staff. I know that Dartmouth alumni wish Ed the best of luck at his new position at West Virginia as Bill Kern's assistant.
As for the Green's new end coach, it is known by all football fans that his men at the University of Oklahoma have gained wide recognition among football coaches for their aggressive style of play.
This was exactly the point that Coach Blaik commented on when asked about the latest member of the Green staff. "Oklahoma ends under Moore have been well-known for their aggressiveness, and I feel that he will make an excellent addition to our staff."
Moore's record for developing outstand- ends at Oklahoma has been brilliant from the first season that he left Louisiana State following graduation to join Major "Biff" Jones at Oklahoma. Three of his prize pupils have been Smith, Young and Ivy, familiar names to those who follow the Big Six Conference and All-American selections. Moore will make his first appearance in Hanover when spring football starts.
It is also of interest to football fans that Trainer Rollie Bevan is determined that Dartmouth football players next fall will be at their physical peak if he has anything to say about it. Immediately after Christmas vacation Rollie called out all football men not engaged in winter activities and put them to work at once in the gymnasium on many exercises, several of them his own creations; and when they have finished, Rollie expects they will be stronger, heavier, and otherwise better men than they were on the first day of his classes. In fact he is going to keep careful statistics to show them their own development. Can it be that the Green is already trying to win the 1940 Cornell game at this early date? If you said "Yes," you were right.
Funny thing how that 35-6 pasting has kept football red hot in campus conversations, and even though almost the entire team from Ithaca will be on Memorial field next year for a return visit, the student body will wager right now that they'll have a fight on their hands to rout Dartmouth twice in succession.
The freshman swimming team looks good. The yearling hockey material is better this year than was the case a year ago. Dartmouth's 1941 basketball team will receive one good man at least from the present yearlings—a big lad, Jim Olson, from Lombard, 111. And marks will be out by next month; we hope the results will not be disastrous.
MAKING THE CHAMP EVEN TOUGHERBob Veres '33, boxing coach, shows Don Schott '40, heavyweight champion of the Collee, how to mix a little trickery with his two-ton wallop. Don won his letter as captainof the junior varsity eleven last fall.
DAN SULLIVAN '40, CAPTAIN AND STAR WING OF THE HOCKEY TEAM, IS SHOWN AT THE RIGHT, AND TO THE LEFT, IN THE FOURSOME RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEFENSE OF DARTMOUTH'S GOAL, ARE (LEFT TO RIGHT) RAY WATTLES '42, "PIDGE" HUGHES '41, GOALIE TED LAPRES '42, AND "SOUP" CAMPBELL '41.
CAPTAIN 808 WHITE '40, GUARD (LEFT), AND TWO OF HIS SOPHOMORE TEAMMATES ON THE GREEN COURT TEAM, CHARLIE PEARSON, CENTER (CENTER), AND BILL PARMER, FORWARD (RIGHT). PEARSON, WHO PLAYED CENTER ON THE BIG GREEN FOOTBALL TEAM LAST FALL, IS SHOWN WITH SOME BANDAGES HE BROUGHT ALONG FROM THE GRIDIRON.
Dartmouth 59, Penn 45 With Gus Broberg shattering his own scoring record with 29 points in a single game, Dartmouth downed Pennsylvania. 59-45, at Hanover on January 17 for its second straight league basketball victory. Broberg surpassed by three points the mark he set last year. Dartmouth held the lead all during a fast contest. Penn was close behind at the half, 26-24, but lost ground toward the end of the game. Bill Parmer, with 16 points, also starred for the Green.
